CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – The Fighting Illini Swimming and Diving Team will travel south to take on Florida International in a two-day meet. Competition will begin on Friday, November 6, at 4 p.m. and conclude on Saturday (Nov. 7) afternoon. The Illini (6-1) will look to improve on their unblemished road record as they travel to take on the undefeated Panthers (5-0).
“The team has bounced back pretty well this week,” said head coach Sue Novitsky. “We are a little beat up, but that is to be expected with our run of meets over the past couple of weeks. Overall, practices have been going well and the level of training has not dropped.”
Florida International enters the weekend with an impressive 5-0 record, which includes wins over Miami, Florida Atlantic and Rice in the FIU Dual-A-Palooza on October 16-17 in Miami. Dating back to last season, the Panthers have won 15-consecutive regular season dual meets.
“FIU is a solid program and it looks to be a very competitive meet,” said Novitsky. “We saw them at the Missouri Invitational last year and they have some very talented athletes that are well coached. Having the meet spread over two days is going to give us another opportunity to rehearse a prelim/final type situation. It is alonger meet, so we really have to work to manage our focus, energy and staying in the present moment as much as possible. We want to be racing as sharp at the end of day two as we were at the start of the meet.”
Last Time Out
UI hits the road coming off a busy weekend of competition. After suffering their first defeat of the season to Northwestern (173-127) on Friday (Oct. 30) at the ARC Pool, the Illini responded with wins over Southern Illinois (166-134) and Illinois State (208-91) in Carbondale on Saturday, October 31.
Next Up
Following the two-day meet in Miami, the Illini will travel to Topeka, Kansas, on Friday, Nov. 20, to compete in The Big Challenge. Meet competition will begin at 10 a.m. CT.
Swimming news courtesy of Illinois Swimming & Diving.